Sleep Apnea (SomnoGuard and Airlift)

ENT Tulsa doctor Scott Cordray of Ears, Nose, and Throat, Inc has over 20 years of proven success with ears, nose, and throat surgeries and effective treatment of Sleep Apnea issues using SomnoGuard and Airlift.

For many patients no matter what devise is over their nose and / or mouth, they cannot tolerate the machine (CPAP) to treat obstructive sleep apnea. There are some surgical options that you can consider. One option is to consider the Somnoguard. The Somnoguard greatly reduces or eliminates snoring and / or obstructive sleep apnea by stabilizing, and in many cases, advancing your mandible or jaw slightly. The upper and lower trays are custom fitted to your teeth, and precise advancement is ascertained according to your specific needs. Using an ENT Tulsa doctor to provide you the custom fit appliance keeps your mandible and associated muscles, including your tongue from falling back against the soft palate and throat, thereby maintaining an open airway. This helps prevent vibration that causes snoring and the obstruction that leads to sleep apnea.

Snoring and obstructive sleep apnea are caused by narrowing or complete collapse of the airway when you sleep, and your muscles relax. Sleep apnea is a serious medical condition that should be treated immediately. Left untreated obstructive sleep apnea has been shown to lead to serious health problems including: high blood pressure (hypertension), increased risk of stroke, increased risk of cancer, and erectile dysfunction.

Talk to your ENT Tulsa doctor today to see if the Somnoguard is right for you or your loved one.

The second option is to consider a surgical intervention to overcome or significantly improve obstructive sleep apnea. In a quick and safe procedure, sutures are placed around the hyoid bone and a small suture anchors are placed under the chin. Your hyoid bone is then re-positioned forward. This opens your airway. Then a suture is placed through the base of your tongue to keep it in a forward position to keep it out of the airway. The hyoid bone, which attaches to multiple airway muscles that help stabilize the airway, plays a key role in maintaining airway stability. In addition, a low hyoid bone position creates a long airway lacking in ridge support between the mandible and the hyoid bone. This increases the likelihood of airway collapse. It would seem logical that advancing and suspending the hyoid bone anteriorly and superiorly would help to shorten the airway, reduce collapse, and improve obstructive sleep apnea by increasing the tone in the airway musculature and shortening the airway. Surgery eliminates much of sleep apnea’s health risk and is better the CPAP by 31% in reducing the risk of death.

To utilize ENT Tulsa doctor Scott Cordray to help you with this, call 918.582.8217.